Anybody who wants to learn day trading wishes to follow certain beliefs. I won’t say rules because a large amount of folks do not like the word, but guidelines. Some of them are fairly well known and a few of them are less so, but they’re all crucial to the successful day trader. The Forex Rebellion calls them the 4 major elements of day trading.

1. The Buck Stops With You

Whether or not you are looking round for a day trading programme or developing your own, remember that whatever you do is your responsibility. Ask for advice and help by all means, but don’t believe everything you hear. People are different and their trading styles can change hugely, so never follow recommendation blindly.

Equally, you can buy in a system but do not neglect to test it. Even if the guy who designed it is saying that it will double up your cash in two months for certain sure, you must test, because there are 3 possible issues with that. One, he might be lying. 2, maybe it used to work well but it does not work any more. Three, maybe it works for him but for some weird reason to do with your spread or whatever, it doesn’t work for you. Your cash is your responsibility and yours alone, so put the system to work on a demo account till you are sure.

2. Stay Calm

The most important enemy of any trader is their own feelings and this is especially true for the person that wants to learn day trading. If you’re the kind of person who makes bad calls under stress, you may want to think again about selecting day trading as your method. This is a fast moving world where seconds can count in thousands of bucks, so you want to keep a very cool head.

Now pretty much everybody likes to think they seem to be a calm sort of person who would react way under pressure, so even if you are convinced you’re going to be the planet’s number one ice cold trader, test yourself as well as your system in that demo account. If you veer off the system even once or start changing your position size, closing out early, waiting too long etc in demo mode, sorry but you are not ready for real life trading when things will be much more hairy. Keep working on it.

3. Track Everything

Even though you’ve got to work fast when you are using day trading programs it is worth making the effort to write everything down. This is a skill you can train yourself of while in demo. You’ll be amazed how much it helps you to grasp why things went right or wrong when they actually did. This will enable to to tweak a marginal system into a profitable one and make all the difference to your bottom line. A straightforward spreadsheet recording your position, the signal(s) and the opening and closing costs is enough during trading. Afterward you may want to add a comment.  

4. If You Doubt, Stay Away

This is a well known trading and investment rule. Do not gamble on something that just about fits your system but not actually. It may work once but over the long term this can lead to disaster. There’s probably a reason why the system is set up for the signals that it has and if the market doesn’t fit, don’t force it.

Similarly if you’re sick or under strain about another area of your life, it can be better to keep away from the market, particularly while you are still a relative amateur. There will be other and better occasions to learn day trading when you’re feeling in peak condition.